Past Fall
by LadyRhain
Summary: how did Kefka get to be the insane 'clown' he is when we meet him in the game? a quick fanfiction into Terra's and Kefka's past at the Empire and how they intertwine together.


-Flash Back-  
>"Where are her parents?" Geshtal laughed, "Well, her father is now being transferred to our lab." The blond man turned his gaze away from the small, green haired baby, "Is he working there now?" Geshtal shook his head, "No, it's interesting and you more than likely wont believe me when I tell you, but her father is an Esper." The blonde's eyes widened but he then shook his head, "Why wouldn't I believe that? Aren't there Espers that look like humans? She obviously the child of one of them." Geshtal laughed again, "No, her father is a beast looking Esper, fur, claws and all. The reason she looks human is because her mother is human." This time the blond didn't speak, he was lost trying to figure out the truth of his emperor's words, "But..how? Is that even possible?" Geshtal nodded his head, "Obviously, or she wouldn't be here." The blond man paced back and forth in front of crib where the green-haired baby slept, "If her father's an Esper then…" Geshtal nodded again, "Then she should have some magic property to her." The blonde's eyes widened again, "How do we know?" Geshtal sighed and walked over to his general's side, "We won't until she's older and can use magic if she has it…but, I must ask a favor of you. I'm older now and can't exactly look after a child, so I wish to ask that you and your wife look after the girl, kind of adopt her in a sense." The blond stared at the young child and a soft smile came to his mouth, "We'd love to." Geshtal looked at his smiling general, "Shouldn't you ask Erica first? No need to push this on her." The blond shook his head, "I've told you already, we can't naturally have children because of Erica's illness…we're worried it'll get passed down to any children we might have. She's dreamed about having a little girl for awhile, she'll be excited to hear about her." He nodded towards the sleeping baby. Geshtal smiled, "Thank you, General Kefka."<p>

-End Flash Back-  
>"Hey, Terra, you ok?" Locke's voice snapped me out of my flashback. I turned to see him, Edgar, Sabin and Celes and standing behind me with worried expressions. Turning away again, I said, "Yes, I'm alright…Just thinking." The sound of footsteps came towards me until they died away beside me. I glanced over at Celes who was examining my face, probably to see if I had lied to them or not. Quickly, I turned my gaze back out over the railing of the Falcon's deck so she couldn't see the water in my eyes. "Terra, what's wrong?" I sighed and shook my head then heard three pairs of footsteps walk up, one stopped beside me and the other two behind me. "Are you crying?" Sabin's voice was close my ear; I glanced over to him to see his face inches from my examining my eyes. The man really didn't have a clue about personal space, then again I didn't really mind; unlike Shadow, I didn't really have a certain space I didn't like people to cross. A slight sad smile found its way to my mouth, "No, but I'm about to." I firm hand was placed on my shoulder; I knew it either had to be Locke or Edgar; they were the only two perfectly comfortable with touching me right now. One, because they'd know me the longest out of our group, and two, because they've know me the longest, they didn't have an issue with the whole half Esper thing. Sabin was slowing gaining the courage to put me in headlocks again like he did before because he enjoyed putting a hand over my head and messing up my unnatural green hair. I turned my head slightly and saw that it was Edgar with his hand on my shoulder, "Do you want us to leave?" I shook my head…most people wanted to be left alone when they were going to cry, but, then again, I'm not like most people, I'd much rather have people around when I'm about to break down. "You wanna talk about it?" It didn't surprise me when Locke asked, he'd always been one of the best listeners in the group…if you had a problem and needed someone listen to you, it was Locke that you turned to…most of the time. Slowly, I nodded my head and sighed, "You all heard what the men said back at the Imperial city, right?" It was quiet for a second before Edgar spoke up, "You mean about the fact that Kefka didn't always used to be like the way he is now…that he used to be 'normal'?" I nodded, "Exactly, what that man said is absolutely true." I could sense their confusion…I probably could've done that even if I could magically sense. "I know, it's hard to understand…but, take it from his adopted daughter, he used to be the best man she knew." Now I could sense all of them tense up, "Adopted daughter?" Locke's tone was as confused as all of them were tense. I sighed… I probably should've told them all this the day I got my memory back, "Yes…My adopted last name is Palazzo." It was quiet for a moment and for a moment, I regretted telling them. "Well, you gonna just leave us hanging?" Sabin's voice was curious and impatient, as usual, but he was wearing a reassuring smile and I smiled the best I could in response. "Kefka and his wife, Erica, adopted me as their daughter when I brought back to the Empire." I saw the shock on their face when I mentioned 'his wife, Erica' but I continued, "We lived together like a picture perfect family until I was twelve, that's when Kefka started to change, started to become more like the man he is now." I cringed as I thought about how much my adopted father Kefka was different than the Kefka all of them knew. "I know, this is prying, but why did Kefka start to change?" Sabin was so good at asking questions..which was good sometimes, except when they were questions like that…the painful to answer questions. "If you want to be technical, it's my fault to a sense…Kefka wasn't always able to use magic." Their faces were completely consumed by confusion so I told them the story of how Kefka got his magic.<p>

-Flash Back-  
>I hadn't seen daddy in a while. We had just gotten back from one of our trips back home to mommy when some men in white jackets came and asked to talk with him, but that was this morning and it was lunch time now. He has promised to take me somewhere special today for lunch as a present cuz it was my seventh birthday today…<p>

I walked up and down all the halls in the big building and looked in every room. I saw Leo in a room reading a book and asked him where daddy was but he said he didn't know so I went back to looking.

While I walked down a hallway, I pulled on my green hair, 'Where is he?' then I heard footsteps, "Daddy?" but it wasn't him, instead Cid came walking towards me. "No, sorry, Terra." Cid looked sad or confused, I couldn't really tell, but it wasn't his normal happy face. "Terra, I need to talk to you for a minute, ok?" I nodded and he walked down the hall some, "Follow me please, Terra." So I did and he stopped in front of a door. He looked at me and then opened the door, "Ladies first." I smiled and walked in, but the door slammed close behind me, "Cid?" But he wasn't in the room with me.

Then, two people in white coats grabbed me, "Hold still." They said as I was fighting to get away, "Calm down, this won't take long." Finally they had me so I couldn't move and two other people in white coats came, one with a knife I'd seen before in the hospital unit and the other with a weird looking bag. The one with the knife came up and quickly ran it over the inside of my arm. Tears fell from my eyes and the other one took the bag and put it over the cut…were they taking my blood? I looked away, still crying while they kept taking my blood. I heard them all gasp, "Geshtal-Gheshtal was right!" "Did you see that?" "The cut is gone!" "It must have been a Cure!" What were they talking about? I looked at my arm, the cut was gone and a perfectly straight line scar was in its place. "As incredible as that is, we don't have enough blood for the transfer." "You're right…we'll have to make another cut." More tears fell down my face and I screamed, "GO AWAY!" I wasn't sure what happened after that, but the room was really hot and there was fire everywhere; the people with white coats had all been pushed back away from me, so I ran with out another thought.  
>-End Flash Back-<p>

All four of them stood there with their mouths open in shock, "They did that to you?" Celes voice was appalled…I suppose that's not exactly something they would've told her at the empire, you know, attacking a seven-year-old and all. I nodded, "You have magic because they inserted Esper blood into you, or at least that's what you were told. The reason you have magic is because of my blood." Locke shook his head, "Wait, I have a couple questions, first off, how does the story you just told us have anything to do with Kefka going crazy?" I was actually getting to that, "Well, they had tried to transfer Esper blood into a human before, but the human body can't accept the magic properties of an Esper's blood, so the human they used first died in the hospital a day after the transfer. They used my blood because it's got Esper properties to it as well as human properties, so they figured the human body could accept it. They used Kefka as the tester for my blood, and he was fine at first, but his body began to attack itself because of my blood. Even if it's less concentrated magic, my blood still has magic properties. Eventually, his body accepted it but it still caused damage to his brain. At first, he was perfectly fine and acted like his normal self, but the more he used magic, the more he saw how much 'stronger' it made him, the more he craved it. Then, of course, the more he craved it, the more he used it, and it was a down hill spiral from there." I sighed, "When I was fifteen, he saw how powerful my magic was and he became jealous, causing him to try to enhance his power to be better than me. With out anyone knowing, he snuck Esper blood out of the labs and transferred it to himself…he was lucky he lived but this caused more brain damage." I cringed as I recalled all of his fall into insanity. "I see…but, what did you mean Celes' magic is because of your blood?" I truthfully didn't know every detail to Locke's second question myself, so I answered with what I knew, "Some how they figured out how to produce my blood in a sense…simply took a sample of my blood again and copied it…they made tons of it, enough to gift fifty plus people with magic. How they copied it, I have not a clue." I frowned. "So, Kefka is the way he is now because he couldn't handle the power of magic, in other words." As I finished my sentence I began to walk across the deck when Edgar's question stopped me, "Have you seen her lately, Erica was it?" It almost seemed like a silly question to ask after all I told them…but at the same time, it had so much to do with Kefka's fall into insanity. "No…I haven't seen her since I was sixteen." "Three years ago?" Sabin was truly shocked by my answer, "Seems like a long time not to see your mom." I nodded in agreement, "You have to remember though, two of those years I wore the Slave Crown." They all looked down at their feet; they didn't like talking about the 'Slave Crown' years with me…probably because I did so many terrible things and they didn't want to hurt me by telling me some of the things I did…I was actually grateful they didn't talk about those years with me, I didn't want to hear half the things I did. "Besides, even if I wanted to see her, I can't." This caught their attention and they all looked at me again, I had no doubt what question they were going to ask so I answered them before they could ask it, "She's no longer living…she was murdered." I frowned. "By who?" it didn't surprise me that they'd ask. So I went told the story that showed me that the man I once loved no longer existed.

-Flash Back-  
>I was coming back to the Empire after my 'visit' up to Tzen. Outside the main building was a huge crowd formed into a circle and I could hear someone in the middle crying while Leo was asking them questions. I pushed my way into the middle of the circle of people and found the source of the crying: Kefka was on his hands and knees weeping.<p>

"Kefka, what's wrong?" Leo's voice was concerned; he and Kefka had been friends since Leo first came to the Empire five years ago when I was eleven. Through his sobs, Kefka answered, "She's gone…gone…" I walked to Kefka's side and shot a glance at Leo who shrugged his shoulders. Bending down beside Kefka, I could see blood on his hands, this time I asked, "What's wrong?" and he gave me the same answer, "She's gone…gone…" I shook my head, his answer didn't make sense in my brain. I figured I'd change my question, maybe I'd get more information, "Who's gone?" "She is…she's gone…" I sighed, his answers weren't helpful, "Where did 'she' go?" His sobbing got louder, "She's dead! DEAD! Never coming back! MURDERED!" My brain finally caught up, 'Mom….dead?' I felt the sting of tears in my eyes along with anger building inside of me, "Dead? Who killed her?" His sobbing got quieter, "Who killed her, Kefka?" Now he was completely silent, I almost didn't catch his whispered answer, "I-I did…" I stood up, "W-What?" He began to laugh a high pitched laugh, "I DID!" Everyone was dead silent as they heard the Emperor's most trusted general admit to murder, "How could you!" I couldn't believe him, his wife! My 'mother'! "Oh, it was easy, almost to easy! Simple little magic and I was done! I didn't even need a level three spell like Figara, Fire and Fira worked just fine!" He laughed again, "Shall I demonstrate on all you lovely people?" He gave a frightening smile as he looked at the crowd.

"Leo, get the crowd to safety, I'll handle him. When you're done, go get the Emperor." Leo nodded and ordered the crowd away to their house, then ran to the giant building. "My, aren't you the brave one?" He turned his smile to me, "Well, at least the battle will actually be worth my time." He sounded bored and before I could reacts he sent a Thundura my way. I casted a Protect and then shot a Fira in counter which he dodged. This happened for minutes before we actually landed a hit on each other; I flew back at the impact of his Blizara right into a house near by. He charged forwards, so when he was close enough that I knew he couldn't dodge, I used Fira again. He went flying back into another near by house. Then, he used a spell that I didn't know he knew, that I didn't know how to use myself, a devastating Earthquake.

I fell to the ground, in defeat and he stood feet in front of me laughing his new, high pitched laugh. He was carrying on with his victory speech but I wasn't listening, I was just focusing on staying conscious. I felt a drop of water hit my hand; I looked up and storm clouds were rolling in. Not seconds later, it started to pour down rain. A strange feeling flowed through me, I didn't feel weak at that moment as the rain poured down on me, a strange new power. I stood as Kefka continued to talk about his victory; I put my hands together, then spread my arms apart and placed my hands on the ground. Kefka had finally stopped talking and looked at me in utter confusion. Then I jumped in the air and did a back flip, and three pillars of water shot up from the ground, throwing Kefka in the air; a powerful Flood. When he landed on the ground he was unconscious. My weakness returned to me and I slowly walked over to him. His face was still pulled in that frightening smile and that's when I knew, Kefka, the man kind man I once called father, was gone, replaced by this twisted man in front of me.  
>-End Flash Back-<p>

"He killed his own wife?" Sabin's horrified voice matched his face. I nodded slowly, "That's when I knew that Kefka had officially lost all sanity." Edgar shook his head trying to handle what he had just been told. Locke was looking over the railing of the airship with an unreadable expression. Celes had taken a seat on the deck and was looking away from everyone. "So..you're ok with fighting him?" Locke was still looking over the railing with an unreadable expression, "Yes, because, as I've said, the man I loved and considered my father no longer exist. The man in his place must be stopped, for the good of the world and all living on it." I nodded and gave the best reassuring smile I could give at that moment. Edgar sighed, "You've got quite the history, Terra." I let out a slight laugh, "I suppose I do, but I don't care about it, it's not important anymore…what matters now is the past that I'm making with all of you, the present I'm living with all of you and the future I'm trying to create with all of you." I smiled as I thought about everything I've done with all of them and all the things I will do with all of them…how my history won't repeat itself, not with my friends, my Final Fantasy.


End file.
